Yorkshire

A great place to start!

A big Yorkshire welcome to our expanding independent guide to the most scenically diverse region of the UK, produced for you right here in Yorkshire.

Scroll down this page to get up to date with what is going on in Yorkshire and some of the newest additions to Yorkshire.guide

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If you’re new to Yorkshire see what it has to offer on our Introduction page.

We have now added more than 1,000 places to our A to Y Gazetteer of Yorkshire. We've listed the cities and towns and now many of the villages, with links to pages providing more information or to pinpoint villages on our unique Yorkshire map.

The Home button links you to many other parts of Yorkshire.guide

And look below for our frequently updated page with some of our newest items about Yorkshire issues and events in more detail .......

Dante Festival at York Races

The racing season at York Racecourse opens with the three-day Dante Festival from Wednesday to Friday this week (May 14 to 16).

The feature race is The Dante Stakes on Thursday. The race is named after the Yorkshire-trained winner of The Derby, back in 1945. Friday's big race is The Yorkshire Cup.

There are seven races each day with the first race at 2.10pm and the last race at 5.25 (5.30pm on Friday).

York

Yorkshire.guide/York

A dozen Seaside Awards for Yorkshire in 2025

The beach at Whitby has both a Blue Flag and a Seaside Award in 2025 Hornsea has a 2025 Blue Flag Withernsea has a 2025 Blue FlagOnce again a dozen Yorkshire beaches have Seaside Awards in 2025 and three Yorkshire beaches have international Blue Flag awards.

The awards each year are made by the environment charity Keep Britain Tidy — the international Blue Flags on behalf of the Foundation for Environmental Education.

Beaches with Seaside Awards in 2025 are Redcar (Lifeboat Station beach), Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Runswick Bay, Sandsend, Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay, Scarborough (North Bay), Cayton Bay, Filey, South Landing at Flamborough, Bridlington (North beach) and (Wilsthorpe beach). The awards are presented to England's best beaches.

Whitby together with Hornsea and Withernsea have the Blue Flag, the world’s most recognised award for beaches, marinas and bathing waters which are measured against the highest bathing water standards of the European Union and highlight beaches with like standards across the world.

Find out more on our Seaside page.

Seaside

Yorkshire.guide/seaside

New National Nature Reserve in West Yorkshire

The iconic Ilkley Moor is part of the new Bradford Pennine Gateway National Nature ReserveA collection of eight natural areas of the Bradford metropolitan district of West Yorkshire have recently been declared one of the King's Series of National Nature Reserves.

Eight separate sites make up the reserve named the Bradford Pennine Gateway and they include Ilkley Moor with its iconic Cow and Calf Rocks. The sites, covering nearly five square miles in total, feature moorland, woodlands wetlands and meadows.

As well as Ilkley Moor there are areas at Baildon Moor above Baildon, Bingley Bog North near to the Five Rise Locks at Bingley, Penistone Hill Country Park near Haworth, Shipley Glen and the nearby Trench Meadows between Bingley, Baildon and Saltaire, the St Ives Country Park at Harden and Harden Moor, which has a bronze age stone circle.

More than 60 events at Huddersfield Literature Festival

The Lawrence Batley Theatre is the centre for many of the festival eventsThe award-winning Huddersfield Literature Festival offers a huge range of events in and around the West Yorkshire town from this Thursday (May 8) to Sunday May 18.

The annual festival was established in 2006 and offers more than 60 events at venues around the town and online bringing major names and emerging talent to the town at book launches, talks, workshops, poetry events and other arts performances.

A festival tipi will be in the courtyard of the Lawrence Batley Theatre which is the centre for many of the festival events. Venues also hosting festival events include the Charles Sikes Building at the University of Huddersfield, the Tolson Museum in Ravensknowle Park, Greenhead Park, The Civic in Holmfirth, Marsden Mechanics Hall and Kirklees libraries in Almondbury, Birkby, Honley and Lindley.

More information at the Huddersfield Literature Festival website.

Huddersfield

Yorkshire.guide/Huddersfield

Rail timetables change during weekend of engineering work

Click for MON-FRI SAT SUN
The line through Mirfield will be closed this weekendTrain timetables are due to change this coming Sunday (May 18), although temporary timetables and route closures due to weekend engineering work are likely to have a more significant effect over the weekend.

After recent weekend closures of Huddersfield station, it will be back open for some services this weekend (May 17-18) but trains between Leeds and Huddersfield and between Wakefield and Huddersfield will continue to be affected by closure of the main TransPennine line at Mirfield. Cross-Pennine services from many other parts of the region will also be affected.

Replacement buses will provide services between Leeds and Huddersfield direct, taking about 50 minutes, between Dewsbury and Huddersfield, between Wakefield Kirkgate, Dewsbury (additional stop), Mirfield, Deighton and Huddersfield and on Saturday between Dewsbury, Mirfield, Brighouse and Halifax. A long train journey between Leeds and Huddersfield, taking just over an hour, will be possible by changing at Halifax on Saturday or via Halifax without a change on Sunday.

Grand Central services from Bradford Interchange to London via Halifax, Brighouse and Mirfield will not be operating this weekend.

Saltburn by the Sea will have replacement buses this weekend

Other rail engineering work will be taking place this weekend between Middlesbrough, Redcar and Saltburn-by-the-Sea with bus replacements along that section of the route.

More detail on the interactive rail map at Yorkshire.guide.

More about work on this line at the TransPennine Route Upgrade website.

Check details of your journey at the National Rail website.

Textile-theme branding aims to bring buses a cut above the competition

One of the first steps in giving the public the bus service they need will involve the long-recognised M for Metro brand being turned on its head in favour of a Weaver 'W' at locations from buildings to bus stopsWest Yorkshire will be ditching the well-known Metro name which it has used for over 50 years as it embarks upon the massive task of rebranding every bus stop in the county from 'M' to 'W' along with passes, ticketing, buildings and buses as The Weaver Network.

The Weaver Network name is said to be inspired by the region's industrial past and was officially unveiled by Mayor Tracy Brabin and West Yorkshire's five council leaders in Leeds on Monday (12 May).

West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Committee chair Clr Susan Hinchcliffe said: “The Weaver Network will reflect a public transport network that the region can be proud of, while helping the public to understand who is responsible for helping them travel to where they need to be."

The Weaver Network 'W' was unveiled in Leeds on a re-liveried green bus with textile-inspired artwork on its lower panels. The bus was rolled out just four days after the West Yorkshire Combined Authority approved the transport network name and brand identity after discussions mostly held in private session.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority is working to create a franchised bus network, whereby the bus network and the majority of services will be authority-controlled. This will mean the Combined Authority sets routes, timetables, fares, and standards. The first franchised bus services are expected to be in operation by March 2027.

See the West Yorkshire mayor with the new bus branding at the Metro website.

There are cuts in bus services among timetable changes being introduced by some operators across West Yorkshire from next Sunday (May 18). Most of Sunday's changes involve First Bus services across many parts of West Yorkshire and also services of the Keighley Bus Company. The date will also see the completion of the return of all bus services to Bradford Interchange bus station after the long period of closure there.

Further details of affected services can be found on the following web page:

West Yorkshire: Metro - Service changes

Bus

Yorkshire.guide/bus

Promotion joy for Yorkshire teams

Leeds United are Championship championsYorkshire football teams are celebrating promotions after successes on the final day of the main action of the English football leagues on Saturday May 3.

Leeds United took the Championship league title thanks to a goal in added time which secured a 1-2 away victory at Plymouth. Next season they will be back in the Premier League where Yorkshire teams have been unusually absent this year.

Sheffield United continue their hunt to also win promotion from the Championship to the Premier League. After finishing third in the Championship table they have reached the promotion play-off final at Wembley on May 24 after two 3-0 beatings of sixth-placed Bristol City in away and home legs of the play-off semi-finals.

Other promotions are from League Two to League One. Doncaster Rovers had won the league title before the last day of this season, but Bradford City will join them in League One next season after securing the League Two third automatic promotion spot at Walsall's expense through a goal six minutes into added time in their game at home against Fleetwood.

Football

Yorkshire's railway heritage stretches beyond 200 years

The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railwayWhile a "Railway 200" celebration is launched by Network Rail in 2025 as the "200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway" it is worth remembering that the railway history of Yorkshire stretches back many decades before then.

The anniversary marks the 200th anniversary of The Stockton & Darlington Railway which was opened on September 27, 1825, on a route between the two towns in historic County Durham but was later extended into Yorkshire and the port of Middlesbrough.

Yorkshire however can trace its railway history back long before 1825.

The Middleton Railway, near Leeds, has the distinction of being the world's oldest continuously working railway, established 67 years earlier than the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1758.

It became the first railway to the authorised by an act of Parliament, the Middleton Railway Act 1757.

Blenkinsop's 1812 rack locomotive Salamanca From 1829 engraving. Public domain source at Wikimedia Commons It initially operated as a horse-drawn waggon-way to take coal from the Middleton collieries towards Leeds. But the steam age also arrived earlier in Yorkshire, when in 1812, some 13 years before the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the Middleton railway operated the first successful commercial steam locomotive.

The locomotive Salamanca was the first of four built for the colliery railway. With its twin-cylinder design it was more sophisticated than the experimental steam locomotives of Richard Trevithick a few years earlier. The locomotives were designed and built in Leeds by Matthew Murray to work with a rack railway track which had been designed and patented by John Blenkinsop, the colliery manager.

The Middleton Railway today runs as a heritage passenger line with a museum at its Moor Road station revealing its long history. The line reopened after winter maintenance on Saturday April 5.

The Penistone Line Partnership is running a viaduct photography competition Scarborough has the world's longest station seatThe Keighley and Worth Valley Railway steam galaA train at the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway's recent steam galaAs part of the Railway 200 celebrations the Middleton Railway will be hosting a series of three evening talks during May, June and July commemorating the contribution of Leeds to the development of the railways. The railway is also restoring the world's smallest standard gauge diesel locomotive, built 90 years ago by the Hunslet Engine Co, to mark the pioneering role Leeds played also in diesel locomotive development.

Many other Railway 200 events are taking place to celebrate railway heritage in Yorkshire, including a viaducts photography competition on the Penistone Line which runs between West and South Yorkshire, art and photography exhibitions, drama, rail tours and even a student attempt to seat as many people as possible on the world's longest station seat at Scarborough station.

More about Railway 200 at Network Rail.

More about the Middleton Railway.

More about the Penistone Line Partrnership Viaducts Photography Competition.

Heritage Railways

Awesome abbeys

Fountains Abbey, near Ripon Kirkstall Abbey, LeedsAbbeys and priories are a magnificent reminder of the region's wealth of history.

They can be found in abundance across Yorkshire, all providing rich pieces in a historic jigsaw showing the part these monastic communities played in the region between the 12th and 16th centuries.

You can find out more about Yorkshire’s monastic settlements on our Abbeys page, including which ones have free access and which require a ticket to visit.

We suggest you follow our links on the page to the site manager's own websites to check the latest admission policy, whether the sites are yet open for the Spring season and times of opening before your visit.

Abbeys

Bradford is City of Culture

This pink installation the Ramadan Pavilion was in Centenary Square during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and continues to be there until April 13Bradford, West Yorkshire's second-largest city, continues its year as UK City of Culture 2025 which began with a big opening show in January.

2025 sees the city and surrounding metropolitan district present hundreds of arts performances and events during the year.

Look back at the opening show at this Bradford City of Culture page.

Find out more about events taking place at the official Bradford 2025 - UK City of Culture website.

Bradford

Yorkshire.guide/Bradford

Yorkshire mixture

Here are links to a few of the most popular pages at Yorkshire.guide:

Cities Largest towns and cities Population Gazetteer Abbeys Castles Film locations Forest of Bowland Heritage Coast Heritage railways Highest mountains Historic Houses Howardian Hills Museums Nidderdale North Pennines North York Moors Peak District Racecourses Seaside York Yorkshire Dales Yorkshire football Railway stations

On Ilkla Moor Baht ’at

If you’re from Yorkshire you will probably recognise our background picture as the Cow and Calf Rocks on Ilkley Moor, famous as the location of the Yorkshire dialect anthem "On Ilkla Moor Baht ’at". More on Ilkley.

Yorkshire news topics

ARCHIVED
Election 2025 results: Success for Reform UK in local elections in a few parts of Yorkshire.

Pennine Way 60: Anniversary of long-distance walking route with more than 100 miles in Yorkshire.

Bradford City of Culture: Opening show for West Yorkshire city named City of Culture 2025.

News archive 2024: News from 2024.

News archive 2023: News from 2023.

News archive 2022: News from 2022.

News archive 2021: News from 2021.

News archive 2020: News from 2020.

News archive 2019: News from 2019.

News archive 2018: News from 2018.

News archive 2017: News from 2017.

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